The good news I have been receiving recently is helping January pass more quickly. My friend Jules had a lovely new baby girl this week, my sister found out she was pregnant and Roomdog got a great new job. Congratulations to all, I love hearing other peoples good news, it makes you feel more positive about the future.
My news is that I am moving house. I have known this since November and have kind of been putting it off. I am moving two doors down, literally twenty feet away so why does this seem like such a massive task? I came here 6 years ago with all my belongings in a backpack but have collected a truck load of stuff which now needs to be packed and moved. My new apartment is bigger and nicer and I want to go there, I just would like someone else to move everything.
Today is the day I have to start. I have three days off work to deal with this move which I know seems a little ridiculous but it feels important to get this right. I have never lived alone or had to set up for myself. I don't really know where to put anything or how to go about this. I have been planning in my head for weeks with scenarios involving cleaning then moving, making several trips with armfuls of stuff or packing in boxes room by room but so far all I have come up with is that this is definitely an excuse to shop. I feel a trip to Target coming on.
Randy has just stopped me mid sentence to ask me if I am Blogging about driving to Target as I have yet to drive on the Highway and he knows that I really want to go. I have been avoiding this with any excuse I can think of because it is kind of scary with all those other cars. Randy knows however that I really want to go check out the Exclusive Furniture for under $50 collection I have been coveting online. Randy says driving is a life skill which I have to master but I feel that I have had to face a lot of new and difficult things for me lately and it is time for Randy get the benefits of my life skills teaching. So today Randy I am going to pass on the benfits of my life experience. I am going to teach you to shop. Target here I come with credit card in hand and sneakers on. Cleaning the new apartment can wait, I have three days after all.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
21st Century Pressure
Quite often I feel this resistance and can't bring myself to do the things everyone else is doing. Maybe it comes from strong feelings of days gone by, like not wanting to be the typical teenager who gives into peer pressure or my post college fear of being pretentious, I don't know but there are some things I have trouble getting on board with.
I like music but refuse to be pretentious about and talk about "only liking a bands early stuff" or saying that a song is "too commercial". I will openly listen to the Pussy Cat Dolls but it took me years to get an Ipod. I was old school for so long with my CD player much to the embarrassment of my teenage niece who told me I really must drag myself into the 21st century and get one. I eventually did (thanks to Roomdog who got it as a birthday surprise!) and by God why did I not do it years ago?
There are many other things I resisted then regretted like getting my laptop, seeing the latest movies (can't stand the hype) having a facebook page and wearing skinny jeans, so recently I felt it was time to let the resistance go and try something new. Last Sunday, I drank water.
Water drinkers annoy me. I have to say you guys are kind of pompous about the whole thing, kind of Superior. I did enjoy that feeling of being a healthy hydrated person last Sunday for a while and I even felt my hangover subside but I found the whole experience time consuming. I drank one large bottle and spent the rest of the day peeing. How the hell do you guys get anything done? All you must do is pee! Flying back from Columbus to NYC I had to go five times! Surely it just must get worse the more you drink. I don't have time to drink water so I will have to just put up with the sneers and disbelief I get for drinking Coke for breakfast.
And for the record I refuse to give into the GMail pressure going on out there. People talk about being a GMail user all the time! They are genuinely shocked when I don't have GMail. I have even overheard conversations on the train which went something like this. "OhmyGod, you don't have GMail? You must get so much spam! Howdoyou put up with it? I don't know what I did before GMail. Gmail is just the next generation, you have to get GMail" Some Gmailers also think that inviting you to become a GMailer is like asking you to be a Godparent or their chief bridesmaid or something. Even signing into blog I get this pressure to get an account...well I refuse. I am keeping my .co.uk address...
Rant Over. I am now off to watch a movie with Randy that came out several years ago that I have not seen and I will drink obscene amounts of Coke and I might not even recycle.
I like music but refuse to be pretentious about and talk about "only liking a bands early stuff" or saying that a song is "too commercial". I will openly listen to the Pussy Cat Dolls but it took me years to get an Ipod. I was old school for so long with my CD player much to the embarrassment of my teenage niece who told me I really must drag myself into the 21st century and get one. I eventually did (thanks to Roomdog who got it as a birthday surprise!) and by God why did I not do it years ago?
There are many other things I resisted then regretted like getting my laptop, seeing the latest movies (can't stand the hype) having a facebook page and wearing skinny jeans, so recently I felt it was time to let the resistance go and try something new. Last Sunday, I drank water.
Water drinkers annoy me. I have to say you guys are kind of pompous about the whole thing, kind of Superior. I did enjoy that feeling of being a healthy hydrated person last Sunday for a while and I even felt my hangover subside but I found the whole experience time consuming. I drank one large bottle and spent the rest of the day peeing. How the hell do you guys get anything done? All you must do is pee! Flying back from Columbus to NYC I had to go five times! Surely it just must get worse the more you drink. I don't have time to drink water so I will have to just put up with the sneers and disbelief I get for drinking Coke for breakfast.
And for the record I refuse to give into the GMail pressure going on out there. People talk about being a GMail user all the time! They are genuinely shocked when I don't have GMail. I have even overheard conversations on the train which went something like this. "OhmyGod, you don't have GMail? You must get so much spam! Howdoyou put up with it? I don't know what I did before GMail. Gmail is just the next generation, you have to get GMail" Some Gmailers also think that inviting you to become a GMailer is like asking you to be a Godparent or their chief bridesmaid or something. Even signing into blog I get this pressure to get an account...well I refuse. I am keeping my .co.uk address...
Rant Over. I am now off to watch a movie with Randy that came out several years ago that I have not seen and I will drink obscene amounts of Coke and I might not even recycle.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Times they are a changing
I have always been a little weird about change and kind of liked things to stay the same. Roomdog and I used to talk about this a lot. How do you know when a period in your life is over? Why do you stop hanging out in a particular place of which the same people. What happens to make you change you daily routines and old habits? It made me think about other times when things changed for me. When I split with my first serious boyfriend in my last year of college I realised that I couldn't do basic things for myself like order in a restaurant, light a cigarette or open a bottle of wine (he was a control freak!) and my college friends put me on a crash course to being single. It gave me some great stories and experiences and made me think I wouldn't be sad about change any more but I guess I still am. Although there have been lots of times of change since then, I kind of feel now like I did then, over ten years ago. In the last few months times have been changing.
Roomdog was the housewife of the year. She did everything in our apartment. She liked to cook and clean and I didn't so she took care of just about everything. We had a lot of discussions about how I would survive and Roomdog even taught me to cook five meals so that I wouldn't starve or go back to the old Ramen Noodles. I have been trying to cook for myself and Randy with varying degrees of success and must confess even bought a cooking magazine. I have become obsessed with produce and recipes and how many onions I have for some reason. I don't expect that I will ever be Jamie Oliver but I can make a decent meal which makes me feel very grown up.
The cleaning is another story. Roomdog used to stress about cleaning which I never understood. Our apartment was always spotless and she could not relax if one thing was out of place. She vacuumed the walls and scrubbed the floor and always made her bed in the morning. Being naturally messy keeping the house tidy has been the biggest challenge since roomdogs departure. I hate cleaning with a passion but getting a wee lady in to clean an apartment you can barley turn around in would just be embarrassing so I'll have to suck this one up.
I used to swear I would never drive but I am learning and got more a of a kick out of passing my drivers knowledge test than I did out of graduating college. I have taken to the road so drivers beware, learning to drive at 33 is not easy! Randy said to me the other day, "The other cars are not children you are responsible for supervising, you can't watch them all." This was while I waited for 5 minutes at a junction because I was too afraid to make a left turn but I am well on my way to freedom. I can make to the 24 hour store and the supermarket, all I need now is to learn to get to mall and I will be independent...my college pals would approve I reckon.
Randy and I were talking at the weekend about when your life changes. He misses his college friends and his old life since he moved here last year and I found myself telling him that sometimes it is the circumstances you least expect that make the best changes although thinking about it now I might be being selfish. I am very glad about the decisions he made cause he is really great to be around. I was single for a long time and dating made big changes for me but I can really recommend this having a boyfriend thing. He asked me a couple of weeks ago what was the hardest thing about roomdog leaving and I told him it was the small things that I didn't appreciate when she was around like her being able to read my mood or her fixing my toothpaste. (I am a random toothpaste squeezer and she use to squeeze it all from the bottom to even it out.) Now Randy does that for me...he's sweet like that.
Sometimes change is a good thing.
Roomdog was the housewife of the year. She did everything in our apartment. She liked to cook and clean and I didn't so she took care of just about everything. We had a lot of discussions about how I would survive and Roomdog even taught me to cook five meals so that I wouldn't starve or go back to the old Ramen Noodles. I have been trying to cook for myself and Randy with varying degrees of success and must confess even bought a cooking magazine. I have become obsessed with produce and recipes and how many onions I have for some reason. I don't expect that I will ever be Jamie Oliver but I can make a decent meal which makes me feel very grown up.
The cleaning is another story. Roomdog used to stress about cleaning which I never understood. Our apartment was always spotless and she could not relax if one thing was out of place. She vacuumed the walls and scrubbed the floor and always made her bed in the morning. Being naturally messy keeping the house tidy has been the biggest challenge since roomdogs departure. I hate cleaning with a passion but getting a wee lady in to clean an apartment you can barley turn around in would just be embarrassing so I'll have to suck this one up.
I used to swear I would never drive but I am learning and got more a of a kick out of passing my drivers knowledge test than I did out of graduating college. I have taken to the road so drivers beware, learning to drive at 33 is not easy! Randy said to me the other day, "The other cars are not children you are responsible for supervising, you can't watch them all." This was while I waited for 5 minutes at a junction because I was too afraid to make a left turn but I am well on my way to freedom. I can make to the 24 hour store and the supermarket, all I need now is to learn to get to mall and I will be independent...my college pals would approve I reckon.
Randy and I were talking at the weekend about when your life changes. He misses his college friends and his old life since he moved here last year and I found myself telling him that sometimes it is the circumstances you least expect that make the best changes although thinking about it now I might be being selfish. I am very glad about the decisions he made cause he is really great to be around. I was single for a long time and dating made big changes for me but I can really recommend this having a boyfriend thing. He asked me a couple of weeks ago what was the hardest thing about roomdog leaving and I told him it was the small things that I didn't appreciate when she was around like her being able to read my mood or her fixing my toothpaste. (I am a random toothpaste squeezer and she use to squeeze it all from the bottom to even it out.) Now Randy does that for me...he's sweet like that.
Sometimes change is a good thing.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
The end of the roomdogs
After six years of living with my roomdog, (Roomdog=roommate and friend) she has finally decided to take the plunge into a real life and move back to Ireland. It was a big decision for her and I think the right one but that is not what this blog is about. Since my roomdog left, I have realised that she had been listening to all the random crap that I talk about on a daily basis. As my closest friend, workmate and roommate, roomdog heard a lot of my ramblings and I am sure saved many others from my wrath, whining, incessant chatter and craziness. I was aware of this at the time but I did not know just how much I feel the need to talk, constantly. It's not that this chatter is anything groundbreaking. In the weeks since roomdog left I have found myself trying to engage my boyfriend Randy (that's not actually his name but he is obsessed with being referred to as "Randy" I guess it is not too much to ask) in conversations about the benefits of concentrated laundry detergent, what colors of ink mean on notes from workmates and whether or not my stomach is flatter or fatter than this time last year, and those are just the ones I have noticed. Now Randy is a nice guy and being from the Midwest he is too polite to say that he doesn't care but I'm pretty sure that the Sephora sale is not what he wants to discuss at the end of a long day so I felt it was time for me to try something else...and this is it. I have decided to put all this chatter out there where it can be read or not but more importantly it will be out of my system. Then I can come home and be interesting. Sorry I didn't think of this years ago Roomdog.
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